CNN: Pawlenty: With trigger, Dems 'will shoot themselves in the foot'
Even as members of President Obama’s fractured party appeared to warm to the notion of putting a so-called “trigger” on any public health insurance option in health care reform legislation, Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the approach was a bad idea. He said it would not help create the bipartisanship the White House and some Congressional Democrats – particularly those in the Senate – are looking for in order to pass a health care reform bill by the end of the year.

CNN: Klobuchar on a health care bill: 'I would like to see us at 60′
Two Democratic senators said Sunday that they would prefer not to see their party use “reconciliation,” a procedural maneuver in the Senate designed for budgetary legislation which only requires 50 votes for a bill to pass, in order to get a health care reform bill passed without the 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster.

CNN: I don't view Palin as a competitor for anything, says Pawlenty
Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is widely considered to be a likely contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, said Sunday that he does not view himself as being in competition with his party’s most recent vice presidential nominee, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

CNN: Obama to announce new adviser on Labor Day
Ron Bloom, a senior adviser on the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry, will add another administration title Monday when President Obama names him senior counselor for Manufacturing Policy.

CNN: 'Why should the liberals always cave?' Dem asks
A liberal Minnesota Democrat who has been an outspoken proponent of the public health insurance option fired a shot over the White House's bow Sunday in the Democratic Party's escalating internal feud over health-care reform.

Washington Post: Health Care in Japan: Low-Cost, for Now
Half a world away from the U.S. health-care debate, Japan has a system that costs half as much and often achieves better medical outcomes than its American counterpart. It does so by banning insurance company profits, limiting doctor fees and accepting shortcomings in care that many well-insured Americans would find intolerable.

Washington Post: In Adviser's Resignation, Vetting Bites Obama Again
The resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones has revealed a lapse in the administration's vetting procedures that, nearly eight months into his tenure, delivered President Obama with an unwelcome distraction as he begins an important week on behalf of his health-care reform initiative.

Washington Post: Mortgage Market Bound by Major U.S. Role
In the go-go years of the U.S. housing boom, virtually anybody could get a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a home, and private lenders flooded the market, aggressively pursuing borrowers no matter their means or financial history.

New York Times: Gadget Makers Can Find Thief, but Don’t Ask
For decades, when an item was lost or stolen, a consumer went through three stages of grief: anger, mourning and acceptance. You would be miffed, then sad and then you would move on, in large part because moving on was the only option.

New York Times: Volunteers Find Muck and Meaning in Service
On a late summer morning so muggy that merely standing constitutes a workout, nine young adults in drenched T-shirts clear a trail in Elk Neck State Park. Three of them buzz expertly with chain saws through drooping oaks and pines, while six others haul the downed limbs deep into the woods.

USA TODAY: What will rise at Ground Zero?
The five skyscrapers were all supposed to rise by early next decade to replace the ravaged World Trade Center, with the city's tallest towers set in a spiral evoking the Statue of Liberty's torch.

Los Angeles Times: Luck runs out on Vegas boom
The Currans of Granada Hills have been taking family vacations on the Las Vegas Strip for years. They weren't about to pass it up just because Jeff Curran's business selling upscale cookware is down sharply.

CNN: Mexican legislative candidate, family killed
A legislative candidate was killed, along with his wife and two children, bringing campaigns for statewide offices in the southeastern state of Tabasco to a halt, the state-run news agency Notimex reported.

CNN: Venezuelan minister: More radio closures coming
The Venezuelan government initiated a new charge against a private television broadcaster and said that 29 additional radio stations would soon be closed, the latest move in what critics call a crackdown on freedom of expression.

CNN: Chavez pledges closer ties with Iran
Iran and Venezuela plan to stand up against "imperialist" foes by strengthening bilateral cooperation on a range of issues, including nuclear power, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday.

New York Times: South Africa’s Poor Renew a Tradition of Protest
This country’s rituals of protest most often call for the burning of tires, the barricading of streets and the throwing of rocks. So when the municipal mayor here went to address the crowd after three days of such agitation, the police thought it best to take him into the stadium in a blast-resistant armored vehicle.

Wall Street Journal: U.K. Official, BP Fuel Furor Over Lockerbie
New statements by both a top U.K. official and one of the country's largest oil companies fed speculation by opposition politicians and victims' families that the recent release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber is entangled with the country's pursuit of oil interests in Libya.